Atienza fires 62 traffic officers

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza has fired 62 traffic enforcers for poor performance last Friday.

This is the first time that a large number of city government personnel has been ordered dismissed by the mayor, said city hall administrator Gaudencio Nable.

Atienza ordered the 62 traffic enforcers, from the Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau, dismissed because they were more keen on making money from apprehensions rather than keeping traffic going.

"This is part of our efforts to clean up the MTPB," Atienza said. "We receive these complaints against them despite our efforts to prepare for the severe traffic condition during the Christmas season."

Atienza said the dismissed traffic officers will be replaced with better trained personnel. The traffic bureau has 400 officers.

Nable said the dismissed enforcers were more "concentrated on doing their other function of apprehending violators. For them, their primary duty is to make arrests because they are attracted by the 20 percent incentive they would get from every arrest that they make."

The incentive — meant to discourage traffic officers from taking bribes — could mean extra income from P20,000 to P25,000 a month, according to Nable.

Nable said some of the dismissed officers also did not man their posts, preferring to remain out of sight and pounce on erring motorists.

Others coddled illegal vendors or protected illegal public transport terminals or simply didn’t report for work.